Ministry and the “L”
Read 2 Corinthians 5:11-15 where Paul finally defends his ministry. For the full sermon, click here. The summary and implication is below:
If you’re a Christian, you have a God-ordained ministry. For most believers, it won’t be preaching (you can breathe a sigh of relief), or leading the music in a worship service, but God has prepared you for a specific ministry.
Ephesians 2:10 – For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.
Your ministry includes the works God prepared for you.
Some of the good works are obvious and objective (Colossians 3, Galatians 5, etc.) there’s also a subjective, individualized plan for each one of us.
Paul had so many positive leadership qualities. And like the list of leadership qualifications in 1 Timothy 3 & Titus 1, they’re characteristics we should ALL be in pursuit of. In yesterday’s sermon, I mentioned 10 things that we should all be striving toward:
1. Focus - do you know your purpose. Is your mission clearly defined? Do you know where you’re going?
2. Motivation - it needs to be internal. Don’t wait for the perfect storm - all the details of the ideal situation.
3. Courage - what do you do in the face of adversity?
4. Knowledge - are you growing in knowledge of not only theology in general, but of your specific ministry as well.
5. Strength - you’ll need it to endure over the long haul. Ministry is labor - it’s work - and you need endurance in affliction.
6. Optimistic - do you believe the best - about both your plans and the people around you?
7. Enthusiastic - be contagious in excitement about what God is doing in and around you and through your ministry.
8. Take Risks - are you putting it on the line? Taking risks? No risk = no reward.
9. Communicating - articulate your plans, vision, where you’re going, etc. Tell others whether to join you or pray for you.
10. Imaginative - thinking forward. Not just what it’s always been, but what it can be!!
Of course, all of those must be tied and linked together with integrity - (above reproach).
Yesterday’s sermon passage took us through three distinct steps:
• Paul’s Ministry - and his defense of it
• The Gospel is Crazy, and Christ’s love controls us
• Who did Christ die for?
The answer to the final point drives how we live.
Final Conclusion & Implication of this passage: (Spoiler Alert)
Jesus died for you
Now go live for Him
Paul feared the Lord. Not a cowering in terror fear, but a deep respect based on the truth of who God is. He is the Most High God!!
The fear of the Lord, knowing who He really is and what He can do, is a distinct comfort to believers, as this is the God who loves me so much that He literally died for me. For me specifically. It’s such an amazing encouragement to know that Jesus died for me. That both inspires and enables me to live for Him!!
The doctrine of election declares that God, before the foundation of the world, chose certain individuals from among the fallen members of Adam’s race to be the objects of His undeserved favor. These, and only these, He purposed to save. Those chosen by the Father were given to the Son, who, endured the penalty of their sins and removed their guilt forever (Steele, Thomas, Quinn). This is what we mean when we say “atonement.” Jesus dies specifically, and only for the elect. This is the “limited” part of “Limited Atonement.”
R.C. Sproul is very helpful in explaining this. If Jesus died for the sins of every person who ever lived, made an atonement for every sin of every person who ever lived, how can you therefore resist the conclusion of universalism?
There’s nothing left for God to punish. Everybody would be saved because every sin has already been atoned for. So obviously the atonement of Christ is made only for those who believe. Jesus didn’t die for everybody. He died for believers. He died for the elect. And if you have no faith in Jesus Christ, the atoning death of Christ only exacerbates your guilt before God and will do nothing to alleviate it because you have rejected the perfect sacrifice that was offered once for all.
2 Corinthians 5:14-15 tells us that Christ’s death on my behalf controls/constrains me and drives my desire to live for Him.
When you see how comprehensively and consistently the Bible proclaims this doctrine, it not only give you great comfort in knowing your worth to God (He sent His Son to die for you) and plants the truth of these verses deep in your heart.
This has historically been a controversial doctrine (although Sproul responds by smiling and saying “that’s the easy one” - the more I consider it, the more I agree with him). Let the Scriptures be the final word in all of this (I’ll include a longer list at the very end of this blog).
Matthew 1:21 – He will save His people from their sins.”
2 Corinthians 5:15 – [He] died and rose again on [our] behalf.
2 Corinthians 5:21 – He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
Galatians 1:3-4 – the Lord Jesus Christ, 4 who gave Himself for our sins so that He might rescue us from this present evil age, according to the will of…God… Amen.
1 Peter 3:18 – For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, so that He might bring you (God’s chosen people, 1 Peter 1:1-2 – those…who are chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father,) to God,
Titus 2:14 – [Jesus] gave Himself for us that He might redeem us from all lawlessness, and purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good works.
Romans 5:10 – while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son,
Colossians 1:21-22 – He reconciled you in the body of His flesh through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach
Philippians 1:29 – to you it has been granted for Christ’s sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake,
Hebrews 13:12 – Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people through His own blood, suffered outside the gate.
1 John 1:7 – if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.
John 10:11; 14-15; 27-29 – “I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. (His own sheep) 14 I am the good shepherd, and I know My own and My own know Me,
15 even as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep.27 My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me;
28 and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish—ever; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.
John 17:24 – I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory…
Hebrews 9:15 – He is the mediator of a new covenant, so that.. those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.
Acts 20:28 – the flock…(the sheep - the people of God) which [Jesus] purchased with His own blood.
Isaiah 53:5 – But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our peace fell upon Him, And by His wounds we are healed.
Jesus died for you - Now go live for Him
Grace & Peace
Pastor Rob
Here’s a longer list of verses that teach this doctrine:
• Matthew 1:21
• Luke 19:10
• 1 Timothy 1:14
• Titus 2:14
• 1 Peter 2:24; 3:18
• 2 Corinthians 5:18-19
• Ephesians 1:3-12; 2:15-16; 5:25-26
• Colossians 1:13-14; 21-22
• Romans 3:24-25; 5:8-10; 9:16
• Galatians 3:13
• Hebrews 9:12; 14; 13:12
• 1 John 1:7
• Philippians 1:29
• 1 Corinthians 1:30; 6:11; 12:3
• 2 Corinthians 3:17-18
• John 1:12-13;
• Titus 2:14; 3:5-6
• 1 Peter 1:3
• Ezekiel 36:26-27
• 2 Corinthians 5:17-18; 21
• Matthew 16:15-17
• John 6:35-40: 44-45, 10:11; 14-18; 24-29; 64-65
• John 17:1-11; 20; 24-26
• 1 Corinthians 2:14
• Acts 5:31; 16:14; 18:27
• Ephesians 2:8-9 (gift of God)
• 1 Corinthians 1:1-2, 9, 23-31
• 1 Corinthians 3:6-7